Memoirs of Ed Kilgore
by foxdude33
Summary: Memoirs of my grandfather and his service in the Korean War. I'll update as he does. Please review, but nothing disrespectful. Rated T for some language and graphic descreptions of wounds.


_**Long time no see, huh guys? Sorry about that, but I've had writers block like you wouldn't believe. This is a memoir that my grandfather wrote about his early life up to his service in the Korean War. I'd just like to share it with you guys. He hasn't finished with it yet, but this is how far he's got so far. Have a look at it if you wish. I want to stress that this is nonfiction though. I'd just like to get that out of the way. Enough of my crap though. Just read.**_

**Naktong River Line**

**I grew up in the hills of Arkansas. We were dirt poor and lived out in the woods, had to walk about two miles to school.**

**I didn't finish high school-when I was about fifteen years old, I went to the tomato harvest in Indiana, picked tomatoes for the cents a peck and made about a hundred dollars. I thought I was rich! It was the most money I ever saw in my life!**

**I went back to Arkansas and worked odd jobs for a while, then went to the wheat harvest in South Dakota. Saw a lot of country on the way there, had a lot of fun, then took of for Oregon with my buddy.**

**We had a car wreck on the way to Oregon…in Yellowstone Park we ran the car into a tree. We were broke but we managed to straighten the car out enough to keep driving. My buddy had a sister who lived there and we borrowed five dollars to eat on until we got paid. We stayed in the old car until we got a place to lice and we swiped gas from where we worked. We stayed in Oregon for about a year and then came back to Arkansas.**

**I took off to Kansas City to work for about a year, then went back to Arkansas again.**

**I joined the Army at that time, took Basic at Fort Chaffey and then on to Fort Bliss, Texas. From there, Fort Lewis Washington, and then I were sent to Korea.**

**When we left the States, it was July and we were on the troop ship Mitchell. We docked in Pusan and as we left the ship, the first thing we noticed was the smell. The people were dressed in cloths that looked like there were made out of bed sheets…the women's breasts were hanging out and they had babies on their backs. The men were in baggy pants. For a "kid" from the Ozarks, it was astonishing to see.**

**When I got to Korea, I thought we would run the North Koreans back where they came from in a month or so. I though no one could stand up to us. We were the best. I soon fount out-North Koreans shoot back.**

**From there we loaded our weapons on flat railroad cars and went to the front lines. At first we were set up with the artillery, they used us for infantry support. They liked to have us…we had a lot of fire power. We went on patrol with them. Those four-fifties could spit out a lot of bullets…the enemy did not like that!**

**One time, we were trying to take a hill away from the North Koreans. We were on a road, bullets were flying hot and heavy, and I had a carton of Camels in the halftrack, smoking one after the other just to keep my head on straight. We were firing the fifties just ahead of the troops that were trying to take the hill. There is no way to describe how scared I was. But, we were young, and as soon as the danger had passed we were brave again until next time.**

**On the way north we stayed in this building overnight. I won a 22 pistol in a poker game…only trouble was, I didn't have any shells for it. I buckled it on anyway and played like John Wayne.**

**Later, continuing to move up north, we stopped at this river to rest and eat. All of a sudden, nine North Korean soldiers came up on the other side of the river-wanting to give up. I pulled out my .22 and motioned for them to put their hands on their heads as they waded the river and came out to our side. I took their rifles and booted them in the rear end.**

**I bragged about capturing them with an empty pistol. Life went on, and there were no medals for capturing enemy soldiers with and empty .22 pistol won in a poker game!**

**We went on patrols at night, called "suicide patrols" where we would go a few miles ahead of our lines. We would stop at places and fire the fifties into the hills or rice paddies. We always drove without lights. This was a five-man crew and a halftrack with four fifty caliber machine guns. We had a lot of fire power but it was stressful…we were afraid all the time.**

**We went on north and came to the North Korean capital city where we were guarding an airport. Bob Hope came to entertain us. He put on a great show. You could hear guns all around, but it didn't seem to bother Bob! He told some jokes that would never have been aired in that time and we sure enjoyed them.**

**We were there in that city for a few days when this South Korean soldier brought a Korean woman to us and said she was a Commie. He wanted to beat her and we didn't let him…we sent her to the higher-ups and I don't know what they found out. That same fellow also brought a five gallon jug of something he called "sogo". It was almost straight alcohol, would curl your hair to drink it. We cut it with water and got kinda drunk!**

**After this we went north and had some good firefights. We stayed in a town one night and played blackjack all night long. I won about 500 dollars (a fortune in those days!). We were supposed to push on north and get home by Christmas. Needless to say, that didn't workout at all.**

**We left that town and almost at once we ran into the enemy. We crossed a small stream and all hell broke loose. We called in the Air Force. The planes were hitting them hard. I was shooting out of this peephole that was in the windshield with my carbine at what I thought was someone's head. I ran out of ammo and bent over to reach in the glove compartment to get more…and that was when a bullet came straight through the peephole. I was hit in the back of the ear and the back of the head. It felt like someone had hit me with their fist. I didn't feel it hit my ear. I told my leader, "I'm hit," and he said "Just a minute, I will get you a bandage." I reached up to feel the back of my head and my hand came away bloody. If I hadn't been leaning over to get more ammo, that would have hit me square in the face and head. I would have died.**

**I was scared bad. I went back to First Aid and the medic dressed my head and ear. About this time my battery officer came up to me and said, "Kilgore, what the hell are you doing back here?" I said, "I got hit, sir." He asked me if I was ready to go back up front. I told him if they would take the white bandage off my head, I was ready.**

**The officer told the medic to let him see my head. After he saw it he told them to send me back to the field hospital. We got back to the forward aid station where they gave me a shot, then loaded onto a plane to the Capital of North Korea again. They had a hospital there with doctors. They operated on my ear and head and I spent the next 18 days there, then back to the front lines.**

**After some patrols and watching the river, we were told to cross the river on August 31, 1950 in support of the 9****th**** Infantry Regiment.**

**We were about 50 yards off the road. At about 11 p.m. that evening the North Koreans came across the river and overran the 9****th**** Infantry.**

**We were ordered to withdraw. The M-19 tank I was driving wouldn't start, so we left it and went up to the top of a hill. It was level, some sort of crop had been growing. There we were told to hold. We were spread around the top of the hill and the North Koreans were coming up after us.**

**In the dark on that hill, one of the South Koreans that was with us said to me, "Joe! Joe!" I looked at him, and realized his face had a horrible big wound, large enough to put your whole hand in. I couldn't do much, the enemy was right on top of us. We were holding them off.**

**Someone told me that someone was behind us. I watched them until they started to talk, and it was Korean, so I took some shots at them. They fell to the ground.**

**That's when I found out that most of our people were gone. The rest of the people with us, used us to hold off they enemy until they got away. We didn't take too kindly to that, but that was the way it was. We would just have to get out of there the best we could. We had a meeting and I was chosen to lead us back to our lines.**

**There was thirteen of us. We crawled about fifty yards and came out near the road. There were North Koreans on the road so we lay in a ditch until they went by and then started up a hill. Got fired on, went down in a rice paddy, lost one of our people on the hill. I don't know if he made it out or not. I never saw him again.**

**We saw some North Koreans about three hundred yards away, and they saw us. They started after us and we ran to the top of the next hill. They didn't try to follow us. We were totally out of wind when we got to the top of the hill. From there, we went through the woods staying low.**

**We finally came out on a road on top of another hill and there was an old tree with a pile of rocks around it. All of us were bunched up in a group and I told everyone to spread out. That's when a North Korean jumped up out of the pile of rocks by the tree. He had a rifle with bayonet on his shoulder and a grenade in his hand.**

**He had not pulled the pin on the grenade. I tried to shoot him but my M1 wouldn't fire for some reason. He pulled the pin on the grenade, pointed his finger at me, and tossed it at me. I ran. It killed the South Korean that was with me. Some shrapnel hit me in the back, just broke the skin…I didn't get a Purple Heart for that one! A medic that was with us killed the North Korean with his BAR.**

**There was a village close by, but we didn't go into it. I test fired my M1 and it worked OK. I think I had been pulling on the trigger guard instead of the trigger…I was so scared. It was the first time in my life I had ever been in any real danger.**

**I think a person learns a lot the first few days under fire…I know I did.**

**Getting back was pretty complicated too…there was a long valley with rice paddies and there were North Korean on both sides. They were between where we were and where we needed to go. I told the guys that we should try to go right through the middle of them. For some reason, they didn't fire at us. I don't know why they didn't. There were a lot more of them then there were of us.**

**We got back to our lines about dark the next day. We were behind the lines part of the night and all day on September 1****st**

**I think that in the preceding 24 hours I had learned to stay alive.**

**We had some more action in support of the Infantry, moved around a lot, smoked a lot of cigarettes to keep our wits.**

**We went on a patrol one time along a dike. There was a hut there, with a long opening about chest high. We pulled in with the rear of the M16 facing the hut. I was driving…I got out, and that's when some North Koreans stood up in the hut. They had guns but weren't aiming them at us. They ran out the back and along a hill, the way we had come in. We turned around and went back down the dike, firing round at them. I don't know if we hit any of them or not.**

**At another place, the Infantry was trying to take a hill. I'm sure it had a number on it (don't they all) but I didn't know what it was. We were at the bottom of the hill when there was a pause in the action. We were all takin' it easy when this sniper started shooting at us. We all started diving for cover.**

**Now, in our squad, there was a plump guy with a big fat butt. We had always teased him that if he ever got hit, it was going to be in his big fat a. We were constantly ribbing him about it. Sure enough, during this action, Fat Butt got hit-right in his big fat butt! It was just a flesh wound, nothing serious, and we all thought he would get to go home. After he healed up, they sent him right back with us. He was later captured and killed.**

**After this, we were on the Naktong River. Our basic orders were to go up to the river at dark, stay there all night, then pull back into a daytime position. We were supposed to get some rest as we were on full alert during the night, but instead we had to go on patrol and none of us were getting any sleep…full alert at night on the riverbank, patrol in the daytime. This went on for about a week. We were ready to drop.**

**The officer in charge of us was pretty much cracking up mentally. He was relieved for medical reasons. The next leader we got was better, and his orders made more sense…we weren't placed on patrol all the time like before. We were on that river one night and were near a persimmon tree. The night before, the enemy had thrown grenades at a tank that had been in that area…we were all nervous as cats. Then, during the night the wind came up at started blowing those persimmons off the tree, making noises over and over again. Every time one would fall, we would just wait for the blast of a grenade.**

**I was on alert with a buddy down in the gun turret of a Quad .50 so that we could get the gun firing if need be. I was the canner. He would fall asleep and his head and helmet would hit the side of the turret, BANG. I would slap him and tell him to stay awake! He told me if I slapped him one more time he was going to shoot me. He kept falling asleep and I kept slapping him. I told him I was not going to stand there by myself while his helmet told the enemy right where we were! It was scary.**

**We moved around a lot in support of the infantry and it was tough going, a lot of fire fights.**

**One time we were on the bank of a river in the staging area, didn't know what to expect or what we were going to do. This friend and I were sitting on the M16 Halftrack eating some canned food and saw some movement across the river. Almost at once, mortor rounds started falling on us. My buddy sitting next to me took shrapnel in his right arm…it looked like a lot of pinpricks. I didn't get hit.**

**We crossed the river and headed up north to link up with the Marines and the 7****th**** Infantry. After a few days of bitter fighting, the enemy started retreating and we moved north, fast. We had them on the run.**

**Soon, however, the Chinese entered the war. We were not ready for them. We had some really tough fights and they got behind us and set up road blocks. The unit I was with stayed at a crossroad all day until about four or five pm, and then an officer told us to take another road out. That may have saved my butt. The rest of the division was almost wiped out. We came out without much fighting at all.**

**We spent some time getting more supplies, then it was back to the fighting. We had some tough battles around Wonju, and were almost wiped out at Hoendson. D Battery had less than half its people after the road block known as "Massacre Valley."**

**As I recall, we were in support of the 38****th**** Infantry and the Korean Infantry Division. The North Koreans overran the South Korean troops and got behind us and set up a road block. We had to fight our way out. It was almost 6 miles, the enemy on both sides of the road. They had mortors, satchel charges, hand grenades and more. We lost all of our officers and over half of our troops. I came out without a scratch. Just the Kilgore luck, I suppose.**


End file.
